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What Cliven Bundy Really Said About Race

The Internet and mainstream media is raging with fury about supposed racist remarks by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. Politicians such as Senator Rand Paul, who will be appearing this weekend at the Maine Republican Party State Convention, are distancing himself from the rancher as a media onslaught continues.

The problem is it’s a dishonest onslaught. It’s a dishonest onslaught that exposes the extreme lack of genuine journalists left in American society and just how desperate the left is in this country to shut down anyone who dares question the big government status quo.

The media narrative will tell you that Bundy stated that the “negroes” are better off slaves while he says negative things about race.

Let’s take a look at the original quotes taken from this video being doctored shamelessly by the media:

I was in the Watts riot, I seen the beginning fire and I seen the last fire. What I seen is civil disturbance. People are not happy, people is thinking they did not have their freedom; they didn’t have these things, and they didn’t have them.

We’ve progressed quite a bit from that day until now, and sure don’t want to go back; we sure don’t want the colored people to go back to that point; we sure don’t want the Mexican people to go back to that point; and we can make a difference right now by taking care of some of these bureaucracies, and do it in a peaceful way.

Would a racist who believed blacks were better off as slaves be defending the Watts riot? For those who require a brief history lesson, the Watts riot occurred August 1965. It started with an African American man being beaten up a white California Highway Patrolman. When news spread of what happened, riots broke out for six days in the minority-dominant neighborhood. 34 people died and over a thousand more injured as a result of the unrest.

Bundy believes we’ve progressed as a country since the sixties, which is true. He then goes onto state that we don’t want to take minorities back to these days.

In the video above, Bundy continues:

Let me tell… talk to you about the Mexicans, and these are just things I know about the negroes. I want to tell you one more thing I know about the negro.

When I go, went, go to Las Vegas, North Las Vegas; and I would see these little government houses, and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids…. and there was always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch. They didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for the kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for the young girls to do.

And because they were basically on government subsidy – so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never, they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered are they were better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things? Or are they better off under government subsidy?

You know they didn’t get more freedom, uh they got less freedom – they got less family life, and their happiness -you could see it in their faces- they were not happy sitting on that concrete sidewalk. Down there they was probably growing their turnips – so that’s all government, that’s not freedom.

Bundy is guilty here of being a poor communicator of his views and even to a degree ignorant about race, but what he is saying is the United States Government is not helping these minorities. That’s not racist. He then defends immigrants:

Now, let me talk about the Spanish people. You know, I understand that they come over here against our Constitution and cross our borders. But they’re here and they’re people; and I’ve worked side-by-side a lot of them.

Don’t tell me they don’t work, and don’t tell me they don’t pay taxes. And don’t tell me they don’t have better family structure than most of us white people. When you see those Mexican families, they’re together, they picnic together, they’re spending their time together, and I’ll tell you in my way of thinking they’re awful nice people.

And we need to have those people join us and be with us… not, not come to our party.

What kind of racist calls Mexicans “awful nice people” while describing their strong family life and saying we need these people to join our country?

It’s shameful the media is resorting to such overtly dishonest tactics to destroy one rancher. But given the fact the mainstream media has largely been reduced to a simplistic mouthpiece of the status quo that doesn’t ask serious questions anymore, it’s unsurprising.

As I noted in a previous Undercover Porcupine article titled “Why The Nevada Ranch War Should Concern Every American“, Bundy’s biggest mistake was not being named Harvey Whittemore. Not only did the media fail to question why the United States Government was overreacting to two ranchers claiming they would stand their ground, they failed to ask about the connection of Senator Harry Reid.

Either there are a lot of ignorant journalists or the industry has just become so polluted with slime it’s amazing any American trusts their work.

To be fair, it’s not just restricted to CNN. What started with the New York Times has spread to many outlets.

Even Senator Rand Paul, a controversial conservative and questionably libertarian superhero, denounced Bundy without doing his homework. In a statement, he said Bundy’s “remarks on race are offensive and I wholeheartedly disagree with him.”

Strong Mexican families who are nice people that deserve to be apart of our country is an offensive statement Senator Paul disagrees with?

It’s shameful to see liberals cheer these deceitful tactics of using doctored quotes to take down a political opponent. It’s disgusting and one any self-respecting leftist should be ashamed of. It should be equally shameful for conservatives and libertarians who are selling out their better judgment in favor of trusting a dishonest media outlet.

Big government liberals who believe our lives should be controlled in every aspect don’t like Cliven Bundy and the media is clearly on the same page. Disagreement is fine, it’s what makes America America. Fortunately for these hateful poor excuses for journalists and the shameful liberals rallying behind these mendacious reports, they have the right in America to be insincere and disingenuous.

The rest of America has a responsibility here to not only demand better treatment for all people in this country, whether it be a struggling minority or a white Nevada rancher. They also has a responsibility to demand fairness in our mainstream media, which clearly has fallen into a dark state of duplicitous behavior.

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About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.

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Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.